Trump Says Economy Has Public Relations Problem Amid High Prices and Slow Hiring
To President Trump, the U.S.economy is as strong as ever.
The only thing missing, he says, is “good public relations.”In the waning days of a high-stakes, hard-fought midterm election, Mr.Trump has redoubled his efforts to try to convince voters that the nation is better off than they realize.
As Americans tough out another month of high prices and slow job growth, the president has tried to make the case that the problem isn’t actually the state of the economy — but, rather, the messaging around it.The president’s frustration was on display this week, as he returned to the campaign trail to stump for Republicans, with roughly one month until voters are set to decide whether to return the party to power.In a series of appearances in Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas and the nation’s capital, Mr.Trump emphasized that the economy was growing, financial markets were booming and construction was on the upswing.
His aides later touted a burst in construction hiring in September, which was evident in the latest jobs report released on Friday.But that same report also evinced the source of Americans’ continued economic unease — and the political trouble that it may soon inflict on Mr.Trump and his fellow Republicans.
Hiring overall cooled last month, while wages once again failed to keep pace with the rise in consumer prices.As a result, the story told by Mr.Trump bore little resemblance to the lived experience of the economy for many Americans, who have grappled for months with surging costs at the gas pump and rising rates on their auto loans, credit cards and mortgages.
That reality even seemed to weigh on the president himself, who lamented at one point this week that his sales pitch was not resonating.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The T...